Twelve Police Now participants attended their Confirmation in Rank ceremony at Cambridgeshire Constabulary Force HQ last week, recognising them as substantive Detective Constables.

Of these new Detective Constables, many have come from different jobs before moving onto the Police Now programme, including teacher, psychologist, NHS logistics manager and chemical engineer.

These officers are part of the 90 Police Now participants who graduated from Police Now’s National Detective Programme this month, across eight forces in England and Wales. They were the first cohort of participants ever on the National Detective Programme, which launched in September 2019 as a pioneering scheme to assist police services in England and Wales with the recruitment, training and development of detectives.

Detective Chief Inspector Neil Sloan, who has worked with Police Now to lead the scheme within Cambridgeshire Constabulary, said: “All 12 in this cohort have now graduated and are PIP2 accredited detectives, which is a great achievement.

“Over the past two years they have worked really hard in a challenging environment but have come through and will now provide a real boost for our detective resilience as a force.”

The participants on the National Detective Programme attended an intensive Police Now training academy in September 2019 before each moving into their respective forces for the remainder of the two-year programme, with 12 participants joining Cambridgeshire Constabulary. In January 2020 these participants spent 10-weeks on the Response and Response Investigations teams. From June 2020, they spent six-months in Criminal Investigation Department in North and South, before moving into teams under Protective Vulnerable People. They will now be posted to Detective posts within Local Policing Teams.

The two-year programme is designed to equip participants with the core policing and leadership skills required in modern investigative work. Throughout the two-year training programme, participants play an integral part in solving crimes while developing their leadership, communication and problem-solving skills.

Kurtis Christoforides, Police Now’s Policing and Home Affairs Director, said: “I want to extend huge congratulations to these twelve detectives who have recently graduated from our National Detective Programme’s very first cohort.

“The programme was incredibly challenging and what these detectives have achieved in just two years is remarkable. I have absolutely no doubt that their future careers will be extremely bright. They’re a credit to the force and the communities they serve, and I wish them the best of luck with their next steps as substantive detectives.”